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Photo hosting websites

It appears that my current webhost is making a right-old muck up of things. Thus I'm exploring other options.

I have all but one of my domain names hosted separately from my web host. This means portability. I designed my system like that from the start as I did hear it was much easier to switch between domain hosts and between web hosts than to switch when both were hosted by the same company. It does seem to be true.

My recent dip into mobile websites has shown up flaws in my webhosting that would otherwise have lain undetected and they're pretty major flaws. The framed redirect doesn't do a lot for any of my websites. My web host will not allow access to their domain server. At best, for double the money I'm paying them, I'd get a single add-on domain. For about double that I'd get more domains. None of their packages suit my needs any more. I'm thus thinking about alternate hosting.

I did come across an innovative solution whereby I could do my own hosting on my workstation and use a service to keep my DNS entries consistent with my dynamic IP address. That actually sounds quite promising. The cost would be about $60 per year for the service. The downside of self-hosting is keeping one's own machine running 24x7. The upside is total control over everything.

I've even come across one ethical server which is entirely wind-powered. That sounds very interesting. It also sounds like it's run out of somebody's bedroom with a small wind turbine set up on the corner of their parent's house!

I'm getting figures for a 12 month hosting deal of around $60 - $150 a year. In fact there're so many providers out there that it's puzzling to say the least, to work out who is best and which direction to take. Self-hosting does tempt me, however.

Rhys, one risk with self hosting is having your ISP cancel your service. Most providers for home use tend to have a service level cap on the upload side since all home service is asymmetrical and they need to reserve a lot of that for other, non-web features like voice or video. This is usually not a big risk for something like a photo site where your traffic is limited.

At the moment I'm interested in a company in Texas that is entirely wind-powered. As long as McDonalds keeps buying Texan beef and the cows keep eating grass, we're assured of a non-stop supply of wind

Um. It says nothing about them being 100% wind powered. What it does say is they're using 100% of their RECs for wind power that's in Texas. HostGator also makes it sound like they own the servers, but they don't. They're reselling just like every other hosting company.

If you set up your own webhost (not difficult) then you could make your site entirely solar powered simply by putting a couple of solar panels connected to a charge-controller and a battery connected to your PC/laptop. For this an old 386 based PC running Linux would be ideal. It's in my plans but not for right now.

The problem with solar power is storing the energy; are you going to have a room full of expensive batteries or perhaps pump the water up to a tank on your roof when you have spair power during the day. You can then open a valve and let the water down at night to drive a turbine.